February 11, 2015

Auschwitz, 1942. Angelus Thomsen is trying to seduce Hannah
Doll, the wife of his Commandant, Paul Doll. Through the events surrounding
this affair Thomsen and Doll narrate the Final Solution. Complicit in their
chronicle is Szmul, a Jewish Sonderkommando, an inmate who guarantees a slight
extension of his life by assisting in the exterminations.

Amis’ virtuosic prose is used most
effectively with his three narrators, each telling the tale of their own
condemnation. The cocksure if detached Thomsen, whose reflexivity grows as the
novel progresses. The self-described ‘romantic’ and ‘everyman’ Doll, whose zeal
is revealed in hilarious narcissism. And the esoteric Szmul, mournful
of his state of being.

Light reading The Zone of Interest is not, but the tale is
compelling, the prose is alluring, and the humanity is shattering.